Copenhagen Accord Falls 'Woefully Short'

About the best that can be said of the Copenhagen talks is that they avoided "outright failure," complains the Guardian in an editorial. But that's not saying much. World leaders had three things to hammer out: emissions, financial aid, and a clear plan on what happens next. "On each of these counts, the accord fell woefully short."

The summit began with "bold rhetoric," descended into "blame games," and grudgingly produced a weak agreement marked by "outright fuzziness." President Obama and China's Wen Jiabao simply didn't rise to the occasion, writes the newspaper. "It is a sad tribute to collective failure that the all-important question at the end of Copenhagen is: what happens next?" (More Copenhagen climate change conference stories.)